THE FRENCH KONGO | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 14, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 28.

THE FRENCH KONGO.

RECENT letters from M. Allégret, of the new mission to the French Kongo country, give interesting accounts of the tribes among whom this mission has been established by the Société des Missions Évangéliques de Paris. The base of the mission is at the seacoast, at the mouth of the Ogowe River; farther up the river is its first station, at Lambaréné, among the Galoas, and still higher is Telagouga, the second station, among the Pahouins, a tribe which until now has never had any contact with our civilization.

"They are still themselves, with their own good and bad instincts," says M. Allégret. They remind him of the ancient Gauls, active, impulsive, intense. They listen to the good news of the gospel with the same eagerness with which they follow the hunt or the fight. They fix their brilliant eyes upon the missionary when he tells them of heaven, "God's country, where he receives his children, and where there is no more death," for this is a burning question with them. They fear death; they think of it constantly; it is their great quarrel with God. They are always saying to me, 'We wish to love God, but we have one thing against him: Why does he make men die?'

"The other day I went to a village and was immediately saluted by two or three men, who said, 'Tell us the news.' 'What news do you want to hear?' I said. 'I know only one kind, the best of all, the good news.' 'That is just what we want; tell us about God.' It is the thing which impresses me more every day, the pleasure they take in hearing about God. I do not think their consciences have anything to do with it; it is rather a desire to be clear on the subject. I may be mistaken, but apparently the sense of sin, of guilt before God, is utterly wanting, so that I dare not yet hope for real conversions. They think of God merely as a powerful chief with whom it would be well to make a treaty of friendship.

. . . I see the Pahouins too near to have many illusions; but I know one thing, whatever be the motive of their attention, they do hear the word of God, and their villages are open to us, and the Holy Spirit can change this curiosity into a sincere desire for pardon and a new life.

"They say to me in the villages: 'Do the schoolchildren learn all this? Then take my boy. Keep him. You shall be his father.' We have thus twenty-six boys and six girls, who are a daily encouragement to us by their conduct in school and by their trust in us. Thanks to them, we are brought into close relations with their families.

"Lately the father of one of them wished to make a banana garden near us, and I went with him to choose the spot. I pointed out a good spot, but he said, 'It is too small; my wives could make a garden broader than the river if I wished it.' 'Ah! how many wives have you, then?' 'I have eight.' 'Eight! Then you have seven too many.' We sat down in the shade of some great trees and talked. 'Eight wives! But you know that the day when you wish to serve God it will be necessary to have only one.' After a moment's thought he answered: 'You have said well. It is true that I love God and wish to obey him, and then I believe that we Pahouins ought to become like the whites. You have only one wife?' 'It is not a matter of black or white,' I said, 'but of what God commands, and whether you will obey him.' 'I wish to obey him, but it is hard; all the other men of the village would mock me.'" To M. Allégret's explanations he replied: "You are right. You tell me the truth; it is necessary that I should obey God; and then—many wives, many troubles. They have a bad character; they quarrel; their parents are always coming to say, 'You have our daughter; give us this; give us that;' the wives too are always wanting something; there is never any end of giving them goods. If one refuses, there are quarrels, fights; perhaps one is killed. And God does not want one to have such a bad life, to go on thus. It is necessary that I should obey God. Tell me still the word of God; all we Pahouins love to hear one speak of God, and you, the man of God, you tell us his word."

"I have been impressed," adds M. Allégret, "since my arrival in Africa by the inward sadness of things, and of men; it is some years since then, and I find this impression as vivid as on the first day. 'What is the good? everything passes away;' this is the deep, instinctive undertone of all the native life. 'You are without hope and without life; I bring you on the part of God the assurance of the life eternal;' this is what I repeat to them under every form."—Missionary Herald.